by Sandy | Aug 13, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, dvd, Film
French film, A Prophet (Un Prophète, 2009) directed by Jacques Audiard struck me as a cautionary tale for wayward youth. It details the experiences of 19 year old Malik (Tahar Rahim) as he serves his 8 year prison sentence for refusing to cooperate with police.
A product of juvenile detention facilities, incarceration in an adult prison matures him, not in the way usually meant. Instead of rehabilitation, “learning his lesson” while repaying his debt to society, etc., prison teaches him questionable survival skills and he toughens. What he learns in prison far surpasses what he could have learned on the streets.
Surviving alone may work on the outside, but in captivity, being part of a group is vital, and being the top dog in that group is prime, doing whatever it takes to get there. Malik adapts to the inhumanity that surrounds him and prospers.
You get drawn into the story and after awhile, you start to root for this young man and want him to rise above somehow. Which perhaps is a testament to both the acting and writing because Malik does some evil stuff, but you still want him alive and freed after his 8 years. (It’s not so much that you want him to “win”- but you want him to survive, to live long enough to discover another way of being in the world.)
But, what lingering effects do violent actions and experiences have on a kid? Are they difficult to erase like tattoos? Is he branded forever? I don’t know.
Fascinating movie.
BTW: Un Prophète (2009) won the Grand Prize at Cannes Festival, 2009
by Sandy | Aug 2, 2011 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Museums
Museum of Fine Arts Boston / MFA – opened a new “Art for the Americas Wing”: 
“…the new wing takes a global perspective on Art of the Americas, showcasing more than 5,000 works of art produced in North, Central, and South America over the course of three millennia. Art in all media will be arranged chronologically on four floors. The wing’s 53 brand-new galleries include nine beautiful period rooms and four Behind the Scenes galleries to enhance the way visitors experience and interact with the collection.”
“Art of the Americas”
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington,
Boston, Massachusetts
(Images: “Room in Brooklyn”, 1932, Edward Hopper and “New York Harbor”, 1855, Fitz Henry Lane)
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by Sandy | Jul 30, 2011 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums
This month the Newark Museum opened a dynamic exhibition addressing the mix and richness of Cuban art- The Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul.
“In 1939, anthropologist Fernando Ortiz characterized Cuban culture as ajiaco, a rich stew consisting of a large variety of ingredients. The ingredients of the “stew” include Catholicism brought in by the Spaniards; the spirituality of the Yoruba slaves and their cultural traditions from Africa; and the Chinese indentured servants who brought Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. The base of the stew is the indigenous people, such as Tainos, who were almost wiped out by the Spaniards. “
The Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul – Until 8/14/11
The Newark Museum
49 Washington Street, Newark, NJ
Images: El Artista (The Artist), Luis Cruz Azaceta (b. 1942) and Se Alimenta mi Espíritu (My Soul is Nourished), Manuel Mendive (b. 1944)
by Sandy | Jun 2, 2011 | Art, Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Drawing, music
His birthday slipped up on me this year. The artist known as Bob Dylan was 70 years old on May 24. I salute and congratulate him!
Of course he is a Gemini. We all know that he writes, he sings, he’s a poet, he’s a musician – truly the classic example of the Air sign’s communication gifts. A few years ago, he received an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Nice, but, did you know that Bob Dylan also paints?! 
His book of his art work, “Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series” (March 2008) has 170 of his drawings rendered in water color and gouache. Drawings done in restaurants, hotel rooms are presented here along with little notes or poems.
by Sandy | May 6, 2011 | Art, Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City has an exhibit exploring a particular segment of art created during the early 20th Century. More than 100 pieces are included in “The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910–1918” on display until June 1, 2011. 
“When Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group in late 1911, the artists predicted a watershed in the arts, a große Umwälzung (great upheaval) that would radically challenge traditional artistic production. Undoubtedly, tremendous creativity and innovation characterized the years leading up to World War I, especially 1910–14.”
The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910–1918 *Until June 1
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Avenue (at 89th Street), NYC
Images: Gino Severini, “Red Cross Train Passing a Village”, (1915) and Kandinsky “Composition VII” (1913)
by Bob Martin | Mar 11, 2011 | Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Live Performance
Julie Taymor stepping down or away from “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” was expected. In her talk at TED 2011, last week there seemed to be a hint that she was expecting a downturn in events and was cushioning her admirers and supporters for a possible fall.
In Broadway history it is not unusual for directors or writers to be removed from projects that they’ve started. Possibly the one difference here is that Julie Taymor’s visual style is so unique that it would seem impossible for someone else to supplant the original intent of the play. Ms. Taymor’s work for me has always been about magic, our accepting something that we knew was not real, like an elephant disappearing in smoke or in her case turning puppets in lions and giraffes (“The Lion King”). Taymor is a brilliant illusionist and feeds our visual fantasies.
“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” may have been too large of a project for right now, plus no one is immune to some failure and Ms. Taymor will be back to Amaze us once more.
French film, A Prophet (Un Prophète, 2009) directed by Jacques Audiard struck me as a cautionary tale for wayward youth. It details the experiences of 19 year old Malik (Tahar Rahim) as he serves his 8 year prison sentence for refusing to cooperate with police.
